




Class_ P S3 5 03 


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Copyright N 1 ’ 1 c ! Z 'A 

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LITTLE HOUSES 





By AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR 


LITTLE HOUSES 

HEARTS AWAKE 

THE SILVER TRUMPET 

SYLVANDER AND CLARINDA 

LIFE AND LIVING 

IN DEEP PLACES 

THE ROADSIDE FIRE 


NEW YORK: 

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 







LITTLE 

HOUSES 

(fBoo£of Poems 

C^~J> 6j) 

AMELIA 

JOSEPHINE 

BURR 




















3 So 3 

Ij-. LL L 6~4. 

I^Z.3 


Copyright, 1923, 

By George H. Doran Company 



NOV I 1923 



©C1A76068S 

Little Houses, ii 


Printed in the United States of America 


aio / 



TO 

THOSE WHO HAVE HELPED TO MAKE 
THIS BOOK 

Quorum Pars Magnaes 

















Some of the poems in this volume are reprinted by courtesy 
of “ The Bookman,” “ Scribner’s Magazine,” “ The Ladies’ 
Home Journal,” “The Outlook,” “Life,” “Everybody’s 
Magazine,” “ The Woman’s Home Companion,” “ The 
Christian Century ” and “ The Bellman ” in which they 
originally appeared. 







DRIFTWOOD ON THE MOOR 


Fern , bay and pine across the moor blow sweet, 

And penetrating, underlying all 

The saltness of the sea\ like its low call 

From unseen sands. Against the tranquil sky 

About us all is green—but at our feet 

Among the barren-heath and everlasting 

Gray weathered planks and splintered gratings lie. 

What vagrant from the beaches has been casting 
Driftwood on the moorf It was the sta 
Itself, in winter storms , that forced a way 
Inland, and flung with a cold laugh of spray 
Mans broken labor at the feet of men ,— 

But could not hold the vantage it had gained. 

With the spring came to its own again 

Earth's gentle green of growth. We could forget 

That cruel trespasser, had not these remained, 

With their insistent warning— (t Here are we! 

Where the sea was, the sea again may be." 

Yes; but peace also has its victory. 

Like tiny purple skins of fragrant wine 
Low blueberries are ripe upon the moor; 

Its wild flowers are the garden of the poor; 

It breathes of homely sweetness, bay and pine. 

Only the driftwood tells its suffering 
In that wild night of storm, as yesterday 
Within your fruitful happy heart you came 
Upon a memory you dare not name — 

Or as to-morrow's ploughing shall betray 
The fragments of past battle to the air. 

Though the flood's power again should overbear 
Its barriers and fresh destruction fling 
Upon the moor each winter, every spring 
Must still the ancient loveliness reclaim. 

Let us take home the driftwood. As it burns 
Upon our hearth, love's humble altar-flame, 

Our hearts may learn His way, Whose patience turns 
All wreckage into beauty at the last, 

A nd builds His heavenly future on the past. 


A. J. B. 



















CONTENTS 


CONTENTS 

Page 

The Harp of Life.17 

Lakeside and Mountain-Top .... 19 

The Red Hat.20 

The Law Breaker.22 

Toward the Ming Tombs.23 

The Gypsy.24 

The Queen.25 

Shwe Dagon.27 

A Swimmer in the Dawn.30 

Kandy.32 

Sinhalese Love Song.34 

The Rest-House.35 

Taj Mahal.37 

West of Suez.40 

The Little Son.42 

Night at Sea.44 

Blue Water.45 

The Victor.47 

Forgive You, Dear?.49 

[ xi ] 
























CONTENTS 

Page 

The Little Houses.50 

Contrast.55 

Patterans.56 

Gorgio Lad.57 

River Song.59 

Christiana’s Ring.60 

Where You Passed.62 

Reunion.63 

A Street Scene.64 

In a City Park.65 

The Wedding Journey.67 

The Robin’s Nest.69 

The Mother of Judas.71 

His Farewell.. 72 

For Remembrance.74 

Enough for Me.75 

Warning.76 

Supposing.77 

Perhaps.78 

To a Scarlet Lizard.79 

Certainty Enough.80 

To Lovers.81 

Awakening.83 

[ xii ] 






























CONTENTS 

Page 

Island. 

My Mother.. 

The Divine Adventurer.88 

When Love Comes.go 

Sanctum.gi 

After an Ice Storm.92 

Winterton.g4 

On a Winter Day.95 

Enoch.96 

The Firelight on Your Face.97 

Early Spring.98 

Why, Indeed?.99 

Two Songs.100 

A Household Grace.101 

The Perfect Lover.102 

Afterglow.103 


[ xiii ] 




















LITTLE HOUSES 




























































































































LITTLE HOUSES 


THE HARP OF LIFE 

SAW a harp so marvellously made 
It seemed no hand upon it should be set 
But an archangers. Human artistry 
At its triumphant height could hardly be 
Worthy of such an instrument — and yet 
It only was a little child who played. 

If one might call it playing. Rapt she stood 
On tiptoe; with unconscious hardihood 
Small clumsy fingers groped among the 
strings 

Waking sharp discord in their wanderings 
And then again touching pure melody — 
Some notes she thrummed with tireless ec¬ 
stasy, 

And some her short arms could not reach at 
all. 

“ O waste! ” I thought. “ Why should this 
glory fall 

“ To such misuse? ” Then, to rebuke my 
haste, 

[ 17 1 






LITTLE HOUSES 


THE HARP OF LIFE (continued) 

I saw the shining wonder of her eyes, 

Their grateful joy, their rapturous surprise 
At every resonance — and I ceased to carp. 

It well may be the Maker of the harp 
And the child’s Father does not think it 
waste. 






LITTLE HOUSES 


LAKESIDE AND MOUNTAIN-TOP 

(Miyanoshita) 

/^LOUDS are about the slopes of Nantai-zan. 
The solemn beauty of the upper snow 
None sees except the sun. 

About Chuzenji shore the maples flame 
Crimson and gold for all the world, until 
Their little day is done. 

So loves too light for hiding may possess 
Their short and shining hour my eyes, my 
hand, 

Even my lips — and go. 

But you are on the summit of my heart. 
Throned in a hidden purity and peace 
That only God can know. 







LITTLE HOUSES 


THE RED HAT 

(Asakusa Temple, Tokyo) 

XX^HEN I pass the shop of the hatter 
* ^ I hide my face with my sleeve 
Because of the little round felt hats 
Hanging there for happy mothers to buy. 
At the shrine of Jizo, 

The friend of dead children, 

A little red hat is hanging 
As it hung in the shop of the hatter one day 
last spring, 

The smallest and gayest that he had, 
Trimmed with a saucy feather. 

It is almost as fresh as it was then, 

And hangs at Jizo’s feet like a scarlet flower. 
So in passing the shop of the hatter I hide 
my face 

Lest some happy mother who has come to 
buy 

For the little head nodding against her 
shoulder 


[ 20 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


THE RED HAT (continued) 

Should see my face — and understand — 
And feel the cold shadow of fear 
On the sunny threshold of her heart. 








LITTLE HOUSES 


THE LAW BREAKER 

(Miyajima) 

N the sacred island Miyajima 

Birth and death are forbidden by the gods. 
What doom will they deal to me 
Who doubly have broken the law? 

For tonight as I walked with you 
Beside the starry waters 
An old love died in my heart, 

And a new was bom. 








TOWARD THE MING TOMBS 


^^LONG this highway of imperial death 

Today once more a conquered conqueror 
passes. 

Cold, cold and still, within my heart I carry 
The love that in its lifetime ruled my world. 


[ 23 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


THE GYPSY 

(Udaipur) 

T3URNT and brown are the Rajput hills 
^ Where nothing but thorns will grow. 
Green are the gardens of Udaipur 
Where the whispering fountains flow 
And tame soft winds to the marble screen 
Where the jewelled women peer unseen, 
Sweet and cool for each hidden queen 
Roses and jasmine blow. 

T N the marble palace a soul may sleep 
A And a body at ease may lie. 

A slave may live in the garden green — 

But I would rather die 

Taking the road as a gypsy must, 

Free as the wind that whirls the dust, 

Out on the burnt brown Rajput hills 
With my face turned bare to the sky. 


[ 24 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


THE QUEEN 

(Rajputana) 

T N the King’s garden 
A Many roses grow. 

In the King’s favour 
Women come and go. 

Once I was bitter. 

Now my heart has been 
Too often broken. 

I am the Queen. 

A Sa woman loves her mate 
Once I loved the King. 

As a priestess serves her god 
I did his pleasuring. 

All my heaven and earth were there 
Within the marble screen. 

Now — it is not even hell. 

Still I am the Queen. 


[ 25 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


THE QUEEN (continued) 

'TpHEREFORE of my emptiness 
Ever must I give. 

When a woman's love is dead. 
Strange a man’s can live. 
Sweetly do the roses 
Crown a fair young slave, 

But they will be sweeter yet 
On a Queen’s grave. 






LITTLE HOUSES 


SHWE DAGON 

(A Temple in the City of Rangoon, Burma) 

T T NDER the stars dim pinnacles of gold, 

Vague jewelled glories, shafts of fretted 
white, 

Faint fluttering lamps that light 
Wise, gravely smiling alabaster faces 
In secret holy places — 

Worship grown richly, beautifully old. 

And over all, like a pale flame, the slender 
Thrust of the final splendor. 

I know that God is in this place tonight 
Where centuries have woven for his wearing 
This garment of strange beauty. He is here, 
A Presence almost past our mortal bearing. 
This joy is close to fear. 


[ 27 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


SHWE DAGON (continued) 

XTIGHT passes, and the sneer of morning 
^ brings 

A huddled mass of stained and sordid 
things,— 

Marred grimy plaster, tawdry tinsellings, 
Smoky, listless lamps where foul oil drips, 
Dull idols with grotesquely gilded lips 
And vacant painted eyes. 

Gaunt dogs breeding their sick and famished 
kind, 

Flowers that lie rotting under furnace 
skies — 

All the night’s rich glamour tom away 
By the relentless glare of Eastern day. 

Can God indeed be here? Then — is He 
blind? 






LITTLE HOUSES 


SHWE DAGON (continued) 

AYLY they climb the weary unclean stair 
In silken robes whose colors are like song, 

Between the rows of beggars crouching 
there, 

Fragments of hands outstretched to beg a 
dole 

Of these light-hearted, child-faced worship¬ 
pers. 

Smiling they give and smiling pass. There 
stirs 

No troubling shadow in that sunny shoal. 

As sweetly perishable as their prayer 

Flowers fill their hands and crown their sleek 
dark hair. 

The blindness is not God’s — and not alone 

Does His long patience bear 

The sadness of this unmeant mockery 

At Shwe Dagon. 

Father — when shall we offer eyes that see 

And living hearts — not dying flowers — to 
Thee? 


[ 29 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


A SWIMMER IN THE DAWN 

HE dawn has yet to break, 



The sleeping trees are furled. 
Only the ocean is awake, 

The watcher of the world. 
Softly, with little foam, 

It pulses on the shore. 

To its clear waters I go home, 
And am the sea’s once more. 


T7R0M dusty city pave, 

A From weariness and heat, 

To the cool crystal of the wave 
Tranquil about my feet. 

In earth’s bewildering quest 
I have no more a part. 

Sweet are these ripples on my breast, 
But sweeter on my heart. 


[ 30 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


A SWIMMER IN THE DAWN (continued) 

r I s HE stars are drowned in light — 

The world is calling me. 

With me shall go the buoyant might 
Of the untiring sea, 

Making me strong to dare 
The test of ways untrod, 

As one arises glad from prayer 
Holding the hand of God. 






LITTLE HOUSES 


KANDY 


'TpAKE me back to Kandy 
A However long the way — 

To feel the peace of Autumn 
With all the hope of May; 

To drink the earth's rich fragrance 
Foaming with hidden flowers; 

To see the sudden rainbow 
Leap glorious from gray showers; 



O eager singing mornings 
Whose breath is golden wine; 
To gentle gay-clad pilgrims 
At Maligawa shrine; 

To tender fleeting twilights 
And silver dawns that wake 
Strange lovely lights and shadows 
Deep in the jade-green lake; 


[ 32 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


KANDY (continued) 

/ ~T"'0 nights when temple-flowers 
A Drift down sweet-breathing snow, 
When blazing through the palm-leaves 
The Southern Cross hangs low; 

To paths of scented shadow 
Under a jewelled sky . . . 

I will go back to Kandy, 

Some day — before I die. 








LITTLE HOUSES 


SINHALESE LOVE SONG 

TARS over Kandy 
All the summer night. 

Sleep you or wake you, 

Star of my heart? 

If you are sleeping, 

Dream of all delight. 

If you are waking, 

Why are we apart? 


D 


EAREST, forever 
Lonely must I be? 
Patience will conquer, 

Love will claim his right. 
Heart beating close to heart, 
Sometime we shall see 
Stars over Kandy 
All the summer night. 


[ 34 ] 







THE REST-HOUSE 


T3 IDING down to Trinco 

Through clouds of butterflies. 

Past pools of starry lilies 
Down to a smiling sea 
Emerald and sapphire 
Beneath unclouded skies. 

I’m going to the Rest-House of Trincomalee. 


HADOWY the jungle 
Stretches on either hand. 

Through its cool green the monkeys 
Chatter from tree to tree. 

I’m longing for the whisper 
Of waves upon the sand. 

I’ll hear it at the Rest-House of Trincomalee. 






LITTLE HOUSES 


THE REST-HOUSE (continued) 

J ASMINE scents the twilight; 

The sun is burning low 
Behind the clustered palm-leaves — 

If only there might be 

One voice to bid me welcome, 

One face — ah, God! You know! 

Waiting at the Rest-House of Trincomalee. 


[ 36 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


TAJ MAHAL 

THINK it was the monk from Italy 
Who breathed this prayer in marble. He 
could know 

Love only as a mystery, and so 
He visioned what the perfect love might be 
Clearer than he whose passion’s crimson 
flower 

Lay dead, in answer to whose mourning’s 
claim 

The dreamer’s soul portrayed in dome and 
tower 

Her beauty, who to him was but a name. 

As the blue deepens with the fading light 
Behind that silent ecstasy of white, 

So the thought deepens. Slowly, one by one, 
The stars succeed the sun. 

Pure as the memory of a perfect hour 
The shining wonder dominates the night. 

This is the glow of a celestial fire — 

The pale strong hands of this divine desire 

[ 37 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


TAJ MAHAL (continued) 

Reach out to God. 

And yet this woman, living, meekly trod 
A way not great nor glorious. She was first 
But not alone within her husband’s heart. 

In all his larger life she had no part. 

Hers but to wait in beauty to allay 
The moment of his soul and senses’ thirst, 

To string her fragrant years, day after day, 
Like roses of a chaplet, and to bear 
His children. So she lived; but when she died, 
She was his queen indeed. 

Perhaps he never knew how great his need 
For something Arjamand alone could give 
Till she had passed beyond his arms’ embrace, 
x And in his hour of uttermost despair 
For the remembered sweetness of her face 
His wild heart broke—and love began to live. 
Not the unmated dreamer could have made 
That dream reality, if stone by stone 
Its growing loveliness had not been laid 
Upon the heart of one who wept alone 
For human joy that he but half had known 
Till it was lost—one who despoiled, betrayed, 


[ 38 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


TAJ MAHAL (continued) 

His own son’s prisoner, 

Closed the last yearning of his weary eyes 
On this white splendor, and the thought of 
her 

Whom to rejoin would be his paradise. 

Out of his cloudy, earth-clogged passion rose 
Pure as the stars, this white and perfect thing. 
O God — from all our groping pain, who 
knows 

What miracle may spring? 







LITTLE HOUSES 


WEST OF SUEZ 

TJOW pale and slow the dark comes on to 
^ night! 

An hour ago the sun set, and the light 
Still clings to the horizon! I forget — 

More than the sun has set. 

This is the twilight. I am going home. 
Beyond this narrow channel in the sand 
These very waters, grown a clearer blue, 

In long white thunders comb 
Upon the palm-fringed beaches of a land 
Where as the day and night meet face to face 
Dusk is their swift embrace. 

I am going westward — to the land I knew 
When India was the dream a child’s heart 
shook 

From the rich pages of a fairy book. 

Here in the twilight now, again it seems 
A dream with other dreams. 

Yet something whispers in my spirit — Go. 

I know. I know. 


[ 40 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


WEST OF SUEZ (continued) 

You will come back — come back, although 
your feet 

Still walk unfaltering the familiar street. 
Though your hand slacks not in the accustomed 
task 

Your world will suddenly become the mask 
And I ... a dream you say? ... the face it 
hides. 

Man comes and goes; the secret East abides 
And none who dares to take 
My cup of dreams can ever quite awake. 
Never the eyes that I have taught to see 
May know a vision wholly clear of me. 

I do not know as yet 

If this transmuting touch be gain or loss. 

I only know, as once there came to me 
Across the Java Sea 

The scent of pine-woods half the world away, 
Now even so, as our familiar skies 
Unfold their nightly glory, ray by ray, 

Of dear deliberate stars, I find my eyes 
Blurred with a sudden moisture of regret. 

I miss the Southern Cross. 

[ 4i 1 






LITTLE HOUSES 


THE LITTLE SON 


T T E is dead, my little son. 

Welcome him, ye gods of death! 
Greet him kindly, one by one. 

From the warmth of human breath 
Whispering love-words in his hair, 
Now he turns to you instead. 

I must leave him to your care, 

For he seeks among the dead 
Peace a king may never know 
In this world of to and fro. 

Goddess with a woman’s eyes 
Hush him sweetly, mother-wise, 

If at night you hear him moan 
Wakeful in the dark alone. 

Bid your godling play with him 
Gently — he was frail of limb, 
Though his heart was princely brave. 
Take him to you tenderly. 


[ 42 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


THE LITTLE SON (continued) 

Let him find within the grave 
Less of loneliness to bear 
Than is mine, who leave him there. 
Little son, farewell to thee. 


(A mural painting in the Tombs of the Kings at Thebes 
represents a Pharaoh presenting his little son, who has 
died, to the gods of the other world.) 


[ 43 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


NIGHT AT SEA 


A BROODING silence of stars, and a path of 
light 

Where the ship wakes fleeting fires in the 
sea’s calm night. 

The swift typhoon may leap from a sudden 
cloud 

And these waves turn cruel as hate and 
white as a shroud, 

But tonight the sombre sweetness of sea 
and sky 

Is hushed as the touch of your lips when 
we said good-bye. 


[ 44 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


BLUE WATER 


' J 'HERE’S nothing between me and Spain 
A But water, blue water — 

Yet I may strain my eyes in vain 
Across that shimmering expanse. 

The dear far land of wild romance 
I must spread sail to gain. 

Blue water, blue water, that holds forgotten 
ships, 

That lays the long cold silences on panting 
human lips, 

What makes your restless billows clean 
As if no wrecks had ever been, 

Blue water, blue water 
Where the swift gull dips? 






LITTLE HOUSES 


BLUE WATER (continued) 

HERE’S nothing between you and me 
But water, blue water. 

Yet over that uncharted sea 
Never a ship can find the way. 

I may go back to Spain some day — 

But always there must be 
Blue water f blue water between us tossing 
cold. 

Although its waves are crystal clear we know 
what dead they hold. 

Though we have no more dreams to drown 
We dare not sail where those went down. 
Blue water, blue water 
Where our hearts grew old. 






LITTLE HOUSES 


THE VICTOR 

/^\ THERS may climb to the housetop walk 

When the sails of the fleet give back the 
sun. 

I go my ways with a quiet heart 
For my housetop days are done. 

\ X 7 HEN the petrels dip in the wild gray waves 
* * And the flags are up for a north-east gale 
I tryst the sea on the weedy sands, 

But not for a homing sail. 

W HEN the wind goes keening the graveless 
dead 

Through the huddled heart of the island 
town, 

I cross the moors to the howling reef 
Where his ship went down. 


[ 47 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


THE VICTOR (continued) 

T T E was so proud of his strength, my man. 
A '*■ Strong and brave to the last, he died 
Fighting the strongest foe in the world 
In the hour of its fiercest pride. 


'\T OU have broken his body, but not my heart. 
A Yours is a barren triumph, Sea, 

For not if your waters covered the world 
Could you keep his soul from me. 


[ 48 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


FORGIVE YOU, DEAR? 


T^ORGIVE you, dear? If there were anything 
To be forgiven, I could not—but my pain 
Is natural and resistless as the spring, 

The sunset, or the rain. 

Do those who sink in its cold mystery 
Forgive the sea? 


[ 49 ] 






THE LITTLE HOUSES 


H 


OW cool and sweet the open evening is 
After my little room, and dusty pavements 
Holding the long day’s heat. The trolley- 
car 

Makes its own breeze — just as our motor 


did 


Along this very road. Ten years ago . . . 

Not long to speak of. Long enough to 
change 

The world — and my world. Earth has 
known the War, 

And I, — his death. It is the loneliness 

That matters most. The loss of money — 
why. 

We could have made a joke of the discom¬ 
forts 

Just as we used in travelling — but now — 

Now I am old and poor and all alone. 

We would have loved a child, if it had come, 

But we were glad at heart, I think, to be 


[ 50 ] 








LITTLE HOUSES 


THE LITTLE HOUSES (continued) 

Alone together ... it is different now. 

So many things have changed . . . but not 
our house. 

That has not changed. He brought me here 
a bride — 

The fairy prince he was in all his ways! 

Old-fashioned now, but it was splendid then. 

Here I get out — thank you. They are so 
kind, 

Those tired conductors! All the lawns are 
green, 

And how the roses flourish! I am glad 

They love the garden so, the people here. 

Sitting so comfortably on the porch — 

I am glad, yes, glad — but I will walk along 

Before they light the lamps. It hurts too 
much 

To see the windows open their bright eyes 

In just that house, where once . . . 

This long stone wall 

Guarded our pleasure-ground. Acres we 
had 

Of rippling meadow-grass and shimmering 
grain — 


[ 5i ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


THE LITTLE HOUSES (continued) 

(He sowed one field with cornflowers and 
poppies 

Among the grass and clover, to recall 
The fields we saw abroad) — and friendly 
orchards 

Of prosperous fruit — and pasture for the 
cows — 

And on that hilltop was a summerhouse 
He built himself — he was handy at such 
things — 

Because I liked the view. That is all 
gone. 

All gone. Instead there is a painted sign — 
The Homesite Beautiful — and scores on 
scores 

Of little houses. As the twilight grows 
The lights come out, as many as the fireflies 
In what we used to call our fairy wood, 
The little grove of maples—all cut down 
But one or two, to make more building 
space. 

They have set out young trees in the right 
places 

[ 52 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


THE LITTLE HOUSES (continued) 

Along the trim new streets — well, that is 
right. 

Old beauty must give way and serve young 
need. 

They came — these people who are lighting 
lamps 

In all the little houses — from such streets 

As that I shall go back to, I suppose. 

How sweet this clean cool air must seem to 
them — 

Sweet as it is to me. How they must 
love — 

As I did — that wide sweep of rolling hills 

Away to westward, and the nestling towns 

Along the valley where the river shines. 

They used to come out Sundays, I remem¬ 
ber, 

In crowds — we saw the trolleys going by, 

Throngs hanging on the step like swarming 
bees, 

And pitied poor folk in the city. Now 

It is they who live here — I who come and 
breathe 

[ 53 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


THE LITTLE HOUSES (continued) 

Deep of the beauty, and go back again. 

Out of our broken rapture has been made 

A host of happinesses. Children grow 

Familiar with clean air and wholesome 
earth, 

Budding and blossoming, flowers among the 
flowers, 

Because — how strange it seems! — be¬ 
cause you died. 

We never could have given it away. 

We would have thought it folly—had we 
thought. 

God took it—yet somehow it seems tonight 

It still is ours to give. I give it now 

And my heart’s blessing with it, all my share 

As you do yours. I feel you here beside me. 

I am not poor and lonely any more. 

I have a home in every little house 

That we have blessed together. Dear, it 
seems 

Our home was never truly ours before. . . . 

Happy, I take the trolley back to town. 


[ 54 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


CONTRAST 

/"ANCE my heart would leap at a word with 
the sound of his name — 

But it came to my ear like a stranger’s when 
somebody spoke it today. 

Then I remembered his kiss and his quick 
shy way of smiling 

As one remembers the mountains of a coun¬ 
try far away. 

But you — I never loved you — yet I close 
my eyes and I see you. 

You shine like a cross of stars from the 
darkening sky of the past. 

You have set your mark upon me — as long 
as I live I shall wear it, 

And the angels will find it and wonder when 
they come for my soul at last. 


[ 55 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


PATTERANS 


i 


FOAM-WHITE shimmer of dogwood. 



A columbine gold and red, 

A blind coiled fern that is just alive 
And the leaf of a year that’s dead, 
Prickly sweetness of eglantine, 

A reed that is pithed and hollow — 
Romany, can you read the trail? 
Romany, will you follow? 


2 


13 REATH of Pan in the treetops 
Blowing — blowing. 

Sound of the summer’s glory 
Growing — growing. 

Twilight over the forest 
Falling — falling — 

And the lure of a lighted window 
Calling — calling. 


[ 56 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


GORGIO LAD 


ORGIO lad, my tribe are waiting. 

Here at your garden’s gate we part. 

The Romany heart with the road is mating, 
The caravan’s ready to start, 

And it’s I that must wander, wander, wan¬ 
der. 

Gardens a-many with never a wall 

Are blossoming back of the skyline yonder. 

Gorgio lad, they call! 


QTRONG are your arms, but the wind is 
^ stronger. 

It blows me out as the dust is blown. 

Love as I may, I can stay no longer. 
Dreaming at dusk alone 
It’s I will be sighing, sighing, sighing 
Seeing your eyes in the campfire’s glow, 

But — this is the call there is no denying. 
Gorgio lad, I go. 


[ 57 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


GORGIO LAD (continued) 

H EART to my heart once more — then let me 
Slip from your world as the sunset goes. 
Just as a falling star regret me, 

Just as a fading rose, 

For it's I must be roving, roving, roving 
At the will of the wind between earth and 
sky. 

There are butterfly wings on a gypsy’s 
loving. 

Gorgio lad, good-bye. 








LITTLE HOUSES 


RIVER SONG 

LEAN low to listen at the river 

For the plash of his paddle far away. 

River, river, swift and smiling river, 

River, bring my lover back today! 

Since he went away up the river 
The day’s complacent light is a shadow to my 
sight 

And the long nights are colder than the river. 
Wistful are the birds by the river, 

And the wild grape’s flowering is an arrow- 
cruel thing 

When I breathe its scent alone by the river. 
When I hear him singing down the river, 
Waiting I will stand where he steers his boat 
to land 

With my feet in the ripples of the river. 

I will flow into his arms as the river 
Melts in the embrace of the sea. 

River, river, strong and secret river. 

River, bring my lover home to me! 


[ 59 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


CHRISTIANA’S RING 

“But she gave Mr. Standfast a ring.” 

T CAN hear the River 
A Singing where she went. . . . 

Here I wait my summons 
Patiently content, 

In my heart the memory 
Of a perfect thing, 

Bright upon my finger 
Christiana’s ring. 

T J ALIANT was her soldier, 

’ Greatheart was her guide, 

Christian was her beacon 
To the other side. 

Such a little share was mine 
In her journeying! 

Yet — it was to Standfast 
That she gave a ring. 


[ 60 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


CHRISTIANA'S RING (continued) 

T T EAVEN can make no richer, 

^ * Earth cannot destroy 
The divine completeness 
Of my slender joy. 

Gold of God’s refining, 

Pure from His own fire 
Is the finished circle 
Of my soul’s desire. 

I shall cross the River, 

I shall meet the King . 

In my heart her memory , 

On my hand her ring. 







LITTLE HOUSES 


WHERE YOU PASSED 


A LONG the woodland path we took 
^ ^ I walk alone today, 

Between white drifts of loveliness 
New flowered by the way. 

Lightly did we meet, my dear, 

And smiling did we part — 

But where you passed there is a trail 
Of blossoms in my heart. 


[ 62 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


REUNION 

O OMETIME through the silence 
^ When your voice I hear 
Whispering your name for me, 

I shall not fear. 

T T 7 HEN there closes round me 
The familiar hold 
Of your arms, beloved, 

I shall not be cold. 

T X J HERE my heart stops beating 
” I shall feel your head 

That my breast has longed for, 
And know that I am dead. 

Q O I shall awaken 
^ Without surprise 
To God’s good-morning 
Waiting in your eyes. 


[ 63 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


A STREET SCENE 


npHE street is ugly—black against the sky 
The elevated cars go clanking by — 

But a girl passes, lilies at her breast, 

Her lifted face a flower above the rest, 

A little secret smile upon her mouth 
As if she wondered life could be so sweet. 

A tender crooning measure of the South 
Unconsciously keeps time with her light 
feet — 

Swing low , sweet chariot — so with starry 
eyes 

She sings along her road to Paradise. . . . 
Above her at a window, curtains part 
And sudden, sharp, expectant, out is thrust 
An icy painted smile, eyes coldly bright 
Under a garish cloud of yellow curls — 

The immemorial call to wandering lust. 

The rosy threshold of a summer night. . . . 
And on the drifting tides of life, two 
girls. ... 

[ 64 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


IN A CITY PARK 


\XT E laughed together in the sunset glow 
* On the cool slope. Across the grassy 
flat 

A man was coming toward us, in his hand 
A bunch of late wild violets held tight. 
Slowly and wearily he walked and fanned 
His wistful sallow face with a straw hat. 
He looked long at us. Then upon a stone 
At the hill’s foot he rested, with his head 
Bowed in the shadow of his arms, alone, 
While the sky darkened till the moon shone 
white. 

I wanted to go down to where he sat 
And say to him — Brother , I know! I 
know! 

I might have gone, had I not also known 
That hidden grief could not be comforted 
Save by God’s patient messengers, the 
years. 

When at last he passed into the night 


[ 65 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


IN A CITY PARK (continued) 

My heart went with him step for step. I 
knew 

That from the same eternal spring life drew 
Our laughter and his tears. 


[ 66 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


THE WEDDING JOURNEY 

QMILING, a woman rose and changed her seat 
^ That they might be together. There they 
sat 

With pink confetti on his smart straw hat 
And rainbow telltales caught among her frills. 
Resplendently new-shod, their eager feet 
Were light and beautiful upon the hills 
Of radiant hope. Their shyly meeting eyes 
Made of the smoky car young Paradise. 
Filling a paper cup, they tried in vain 
To freshen into fragrant life again 
The limp white roses of her crushed bouquet, 
That all their world might be as glad as they. 
Wistfully tender grew the smiling face 
Of her who watched them, who had changed 
her place 

That those young hands might meet by 
stealth and cling, 

Sharing the wealth of that bright wedding- 
ring. 


[ 67 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


THE WEDDING JOURNEY (continued) 

Then, all at once, she turned a different smile 
Sweet as the bride’s, expecting — who can 
guess 

What answering smile of other, mated days? 
Blankly she realized the dusty aisle. 

So might one maimed, forgetting, strive to 
raise 

His missing arm, and wake to emptiness. 


[ 68 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


THE ROBIN’S NEST 
CROWDED nest under the porch’s eaves 



L With four young robins, grown beyond the 
bounds 

Of their snug nursery. In the maple’s leaves 

The parents fluttered with sweet anxious 
sounds 

Of protest when our human family 

One after one stole tiptoe round to see 

Whether the little ones had left the nest. 

The world about us groaned in growing 
pain 

And in the smaller world of heart and 
brain 

Each of us faced hard fights, keen question¬ 
ings, 

The writing of new laws, the fall of kings, 

And yet we smiled and put all these away 

To wonder if the brood would fly today. 

We knew, although perhaps we never 
guessed 


[ 69 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


THE ROBIN’S NEST (continued) 

The knowledge, that the secret of all strife 
And victory, God’s miracle of life, 

Was in that outgrown nest, those untried 
wings. 


[ 7o ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


THE MOTHER OF JUDAS 

1VT ARY in the house of John 
1 A Spent with sorrow, fell asleep — 
But in the lonely Potter’s Field 
I heard a woman weep. 

“ Leading your baby feet, my son, 
What turning did I take amiss? 
What did I do or leave undone 
That you should come to this? ” 

All night she made above her dead 
Her comfortless and bitter cry — 

“ What did I say or leave unsaid, 
That thus my son should die? ” 


[ 7i ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


HIS FAREWELL 

T HAVE attempted all and lost all. Now, 
After your no, what is there left to say? 
And yet I have one thing to ask of you 
Before I go away — 

"VTOT for myself; for me it is too late. 

^ I think my heart is broken. ... Yes, I 
know 

The words are shopworn. Disbelieve them, 
dear, 

If you are happier so. 


T>UT promise me that you will shade from 
^ men 

The flaming soul of you. It burns too clear. 
Hold us away. How can we help but love 
you 

When we can come so near? 

[ 72 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


HIS FAREWELL (continued) 

T AM not blaming you. Not God who made 
A you 

Could change you, dearest. Only try to be 
Less deadly kind, and spare another man 
What you have done to me. 








FOR REMEMBRANCE 


IVE me at our parting 
No flowers that fade, 

Give me no keepsake 
Another’s hands have made, 

Nor the singing silence 
Of a final kiss. 

Give me for remembrance 
Nothing less than this — 

To know your heart more swift to feel, 

Your eyes more clear to see, 

Your hands more strong to serve earth’s 
need 

Because of me. 






LITTLE HOUSES 


ENOUGH FOR ME 

T AM the rose that blossoms at your window; 
I am the patch of sunlight on your floor; 
The bird whose song you hear at dusk and 
dawning — 

No more to you, no more. 


OUR eyes may seek the rose when they are 
weary, 

Warm on your feet the sunbeam’s touch may 
be, 

And you might miss the bird if it were silent. 
That is enough for me. 


[ 75 ] 






WARNING 


SK me nothing now, my dear — 

The stars are all too large and near; 

At dusk the peepers in the pool 
Make my pulses play the fool; 

Robins with morning winds awake 
And in my spirit barriers break; 

The willows are too golden green, 

The grasses are too young and clean, 

The little brooks too loud and swift; 

Too red a crest the maples lift. 

The heart of life beats high and glad — 
Can we keep wise when earth goes mad? 
Do not ask me anything 
Lest misfortune fall. 

I am in love with Love and Spring 
And not with you at all! 






LITTLE HOUSES 


SUPPOSING 

OULD the sky be quite as blue 
Had I never known of you? 

Would the sun as pleasant be 
Had you not discovered me? 

Would there be so many birds 
Had you never found the words? 
Would their plumage be as gay 
Had I gone the other way ? 

Would we see the spring so near 
Through the snow-drifts if — my dear, 
Let the idle questions go! 

We shall never know. 







LITTLE HOUSES 


PERHAPS 


A ND if we nevermore should meet, 

If none of all our dreams come true, 

If there’s no pathway for my feet 

That leads them home to love — and you — 

Perhaps I might have brought you grief 

Instead of joy, and that is why 

God made our day so bright and brief, 

And our Good-morrow meant Good-bye. 






LITTLE HOUSES 


TO A SCARLET LIZARD 


/ T V INY Mephistopheles 

Of the woodland way, 

Flaunting through your grassy world 
Frivolously gay, 

Smiling stoop I low to watch you. 
Seems my vanity 
As amusing to the angels 
As you are to me? 







LITTLE HOUSES 


CERTAINTY ENOUGH 

T AM not sure that earth is round 
A Nor that the sky is really blue. 
The tale of why the apples fall 
May or may not be true. 

I do not know what makes the tides 
Nor what tomorrow’s world may do, 
But I have certainty enough 
For I am sure of you. 






LITTLE HOUSES 


TO LOVERS 

T AD, will you draw the lightning down 
^ And pluck the morning star from the sky 
To light a fire on your hearthstone 
That a wilful girl may sit thereby? 


M AID, will you harness the eagle's wings 
1 A And bit the jaws of the restless foam 
And change the cry of the gypsy wind 
For the click of a latch when your man 
comes home? 


Q WIFT and sure go the lonely feet, 

^ And the single eye sees cold and true, 

And the road that has room and to spare for 
one 

May be sorely narrow for two— 


[ 81 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


TO LOVERS (continued) 

'VT ET still they light their fire at the stars 
A And still they bridle the chafing sea, 

For the sake of a dream that has always 
been . . . 

That will always be. 







AWAKENING 


Tj'ATHER, I have thanked Thee for high 
A palms, 

Green caves of fragrance, where bright 
orchids burn. 

But I would thank Thee now for apple-bloom 
And for the slow uncoiling of the fern. 

T HAVE been glad of white peaks hung in 
A clouds, 

Of glacier-streams dropped sheer in misty 
spray, 

But now how gracious are the grassy hills, 
The clear brown brooks beside the trodden 
way. 

13 OSE-GARLANDED at wild rich feasts I sat 
Drunken in soul with strange unhallowed 
wine. 

Break to me now Thy simple homely bread, 
Pour the pure comfort of Thy patient vine. 


[ 83 ] 








AWAKENING (continued) 


^JOT in the earthquake, no, nor in the wind, 
^ ^ Nor in the fire is God. When we awake 
To hear the still small voice, He comes — 
and then — 

Father, hold close my heart lest it should 
break! 







LITTLE HOUSES 


ISLAND 

T T is not severed from the kindly ground. 

A Under the silver line God draws around 
Its quiet beauty, it is one with all 
The softly wooded hills, the clods that fall 
Where the plow passes, and the trodden 
road — 

Only about this bit of earth has flowed 
Pure mystery of water deep and clear. 

Some hours God circles with his Presence 
so — 

Part of what has been and what is to be. 

And yet distinct forever — and we hear 
About their perfect peace in music flow 
The living waters of eternity. 


[ 85 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


MY MOTHER 

KNEW her first as food and warmth and 
rest, 

A silken lap, soft arms, a tender breast; 

Then, as fear came into my world, I knew 
She was a never-failing refuge too. 

Then I discovered play — my playmate she, 
Unwearied in gay ingenuity, 

And yet at the same time in her I saw, 

Scarce understood, and yet obeyed, the Law. 
Time taught me more and more to compre¬ 
hend 

Her understanding sweetness as a friend, 

And as my life's horizon grew more wide 
Her meaning to myself was magnified 
By vision that had grown at last to see 
A love that could enfold the world — and 
me. 

Oh, there were restive and impatient days 
When wilful childhood craved its own wild 
ways 


[ 86 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


MY MOTHER (continued) 

And flung aside the gently guiding hand — 
Blind hours when I was slow to understand, 
But patience and a love that would not fail 
Always prevailed — how could they but pre¬ 
vail? 

And now so well I know her that I know 
The graciousness of her will always grow 
Like daybreak in my spirit, and will be 
Through all my life a radiant mystery 
Since love like hers ever exceeds the sweep 
Of mortal plummet, sound we ne’er so deep. 
Eternity itself will not suffice 
To fathom it. If all through Paradise 
My mother’s love shall lead me wondering, 

Is God’s a slighter and a shallower thing? 
How shall I dare to dream that I enclose 
Her Maker in the mind she overflows? 


[ 87 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


THE DIVINE ADVENTURER 


A CARPENTER of Nazareth 
^ ^ Went forth to save the world from sin, 
But had he waited to begin 
His ministry divine 
Until he found a perfect few 
To trumpet in his kingdom new, 

Still would be mellowing in the skin 
His sacramental wine. 


A LONG the road his Father trod 
1 ** Undaunted went the Son of God, 

Plucking the tares and wheat, 

Remembering the days that were, 

Of David the adulterer 
And Israel the cheat. 

Poor passionate hearts that soared and fell, 
Hands that wrought evil, meaning well, 


[ 88 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


THE DIVINE ADVENTURER (continued) 

He took to serve his need, 

Because from failure and despair 
They rose for him again to dare 
The all but hopeless deed. 

'“T“ N ODAY to stained and broken men 
“■* He trusts his holiest work again. 

Once more his healing touch 
Braving the pure and pitiless 
Is bold to pardon and to bless 
The sinner who loved much. 

T^\ IVINE Adventurer, we pray, 

Quicken our courage! You who trust 
Your justice to the less than just 
That seedling souls may grow, 

Knowing God's purposes are sure. 

Help us to dare and to endure — 

To climb the stars through bloody dust 
Along the road You go. 







LITTLE HOUSES 


WHEN LOVE COMES 

O not forth for any voices crying 

Lo here! lo there! behold, the Lord has 
come! 

Love will seek and find your heart at home, 
And when he calls, there can be no denying. 
Only keep the fire upon your altar, 

Only keep your threshold clean and sweet 
Ready for the blessing of his feet — 

And at his coming do not fear nor falter. 
With your hand in his go forth to beauty, 
High and singing heart and laughing eyes, 
To a worl 1 where joy is one with duty, 

And each common day holds paradise. 






LITTLE HOUSES 


SANCTUM 


'T -V HRILL to the spring’s gay mystery of 
A green, 

Quiet your spirit in the summer shade, 

Feel the rich magic of the spell serene 
Autumn’s fulfilment on the world has laid, 
None loves his woods till he has seen the 
bare 

Courageous dignity of winter trees. 

What do we know of friendship till we share 
A friend’s adversities? 







LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTER AN ICE STORM 

/ "T“ V HE sky is blue beyond belief 
-■* Over a world of drifted white, 

And every tree-top is a sheaf 
Of diamonds laughing back the light. 


E 


ACH grass-plume is a glittering spray, 
Each twig a wire of crystal thin. 
Such was the world, the Rabbis say, 
Before the shattering tread of sin. 


'T v HE trees were clad in jewelled mail 
A That knew not what it was to fade — 
Then came bare branches, and a hail 
Of gems flung down and overlaid, 


A ND though for every tree once more 

God's tender care green garments spun, 
Only man’s labor can restore 
Those buried jewels to the sun. 


[ 92 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTER AN ICE STORM (continued) 

VT ET sometimes, when the winter’s cold 
A Lies heavy on the hearts of men, 
God decks his garden as of old, 

And Eden’s diamonds laugh again. 


[ 93 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


WINTERTON 

A SI came down through Winterton 

The stubble-fields were hoar with sleet. 
A dog along the bleak white road 
Struggled on clawing slippery feet, 

\ ND deep between glazed slopes of snow 
^ ^ An ice-bound brook sullenly crawled. 
Shivering crouched a house or two — 

Was ever place so fitly called? 


T>UT there was laughter in the air. . . 
^ How soon a flash of green will run 
Like flame along the hills, and spring 
Come romping into Winterton! 


[ 94 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


ON A WINTER DAY 

A LONE along the street I go — 

The still white street — and laugh to see 
An eager dog whose nose with snow 
Is powdered . . . and there comes to me 


'T V HE memory of another day 

When flushed with cold we laughing 
plowed 

Among the drifts our merry way. 

This sky is blue, without a cloud. . . . 


M 


Y little dog, with barks of bliss, 

Nosed in the snow — and you and I 
Looked up to such a sky as this 
With eyes unclouded as the sky. 


1%/T Y little dog has run ahead; 

1 A No call of mine can reach so far; 
And you and I ... if we were dead 
We might be nearer than we are. 

[ 95 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


ENOCH 

October 22, 1922 

STEADFASTLY and calmly, ever forward 
^ He walked from light to light with lifted 
face. 

Now the light has grown beyond our bearing 
And our dim eyes have lost him for a space. 

He has not changed the manner of his walk¬ 
ing— 

Still he goes onward hand in hand with God, 
His tranquil eyes the mirror of his Master, 
And he has left bright footprints where he 
trod. 







LITTLE HOUSES 


THE FIRELIGHT ON YOUR FACE 

S one who looks into a lighted place 



1 x Out of the cold and dark, himself unseen, 
I saw you with the firelight on your face. 
And in your peace myself became serene. 

/ ‘T“ s HOUGH I have lost you as the world 
A counts loss 

I do not mourn the days when hope was 
mine. 

Only love’s body dies upon the cross — 

All that remains is deathless and divine. 


QTANDING too near you, I could only see 
^ My own desire reflected in your eyes. 

I see your beauty now as it will be 
The morning that we meet in Paradise. 


[ 97 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


EARLY SPRING 

QTILL the pools glaze 
^ At the fall of night, 

But longer are the days, 

And stronger is the light. 


SCATTERED snow lingers, 
^ But a gay new green 
Parts with brave wee fingers 
The dull and sodden screen. 


T?VEN so in me 
^ Old tangles part. 
Longer light I see, 

And stronger is my heart. 


[ 93 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


WHY, INDEED? 


'V^OUR cheek against my own would be 
No warmer than the morning sun. 

You cannot sing as do the birds 
Nor like the laughing rivulets run. 

Crocus is gayer than your smile 

And April skies a richer blue 

Than are your eyes—when I have Spring, 

Why do I long for you? 






LITTLE HOUSES 


TWO SONGS 


'\T OU rose to meet me with a smile 
-*■ When I came down the stair. 

I had been coming down the years 
To find you waiting there, 

And in your hand that clasped my own 
I felt another touch 
That pardoned once in Galilee 
A sinner who loved much. 

2 

T DO not say good-bye to you 
^ For we can never part. 

The gladness you have given me 
Sings always in my heart, 

And when death beckons you or me 
The same will still be true — 

For there is nothing that can die 
In what I give to you. 


[ ioo ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


A HOUSEHOLD GRACE 


/ “p v HOU who didst bless by Galilee 
The scanty loaves, we pray 
Enrich with Thine abundancy 
Our meagerness this day. 

Break Thou to us the bread of Love 
That there may be no lack thereof. 


[ ioi ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


THE PERFECT LOVER 

OW she longed and prayed for him! 

How all life delayed for him! 

How her heart stayed for him 
Whatever magnets drew! 

Though years brought no name to him 
Her spirit rose like flame to him — 

And when at last she came to him 
Neither of them knew. 








LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW 

XJO, no, signora! I am not too old. 

I still can swing an oar — and you are 
light. 

Eighty, full eighty years — and see, how 
strong! 

I learned to row in Venice; there ten years 

I was a gondolier. When I came back 

I rowed upon . . . this lake. 

You know at first 

Only the little wild Cordevole 

Went roaring through the valley. There 
was then 

No lake, signora, only villages, 

Tilled fields and vineyards — and the saw¬ 
mills droned 

Loud as the river . . . sixty years ago. . . . 

The water’s clear today; look down. You 
see 

The village there below you? Down — 
straight down — 

[ 103 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

The house that stands a little way apart — 

That was my house. There was beside the 
door 

A rosebush growing, that I planted there 

The day our child was born, and right beside 

I marked her height each birthday, and we 
laughed 

Because she could not overtake the rose. 

But some day she will have to stoop, we 
said, 

To pluck the roses! There were just two 
marks. . . . 

Long, long ago they were washed out, and 
yet 

I see them there today as I look down. 

Shall we go on? 

’Twas sixty years ago. . . . 

We married young, signora; we were poor 

But we were strong, and when one loves it 
seems 

Youth is too brief and sweet to wait apart 

Until one prospers. There’s a savour, too, 

In hard-won bread with love to season it. 

[ 104 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

You understand! And children though we 
were, 

We walked upon the mountain tops of joy. 
Look where Civetta towers, peak on peak, 
Soft in its rosy pallor. She was pale 
For all her strength. How often I have 
said 

Civetta taught her cheeks their faint sweet 
glow. 

She was not ruddy like the other girls. 

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, 

The priest would say; and then, The 
strength of them 

Is also His. It seemed to us we built 
Our nest within the hollow of God’s hand 
There in the valley, for about us rose 
The hills like guardian angels, and we 
named 

The child Civetta, for the mountain seemed 
Strong as a saint to us. Yet, spite of that, 
’Twas Piz we held the dearest, like a hoar 
Old kindly giant, brooding o’er the pass 
To keep out evil comers. Ah, those days! 

[ 105 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

You would not think, seeing that silent 
house 

Below the water, what it used to be. 

There never was a throat so full of music 

As my Costanza’s. Always I could hear 

A snatch of song that told me where she 
was. 

Her heart was full of joy —how could it help 

But bubble into melody? And when 

She slept, it seemed the nightingale sang on 

The night through in her stead. The little 
one 

Was like her mother. We had made two 
marks 

Beside the rose-bush . . . sixty years 
ago. . . . 


T T TE had worked hard, signora, and had saved 
** To buy a yoke of oxen, so I went 
Down to Belluno, for the market-day. 

The two walked with me to the valley’s 
mouth, 

[ 106 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

For in a village at the foot of Piz — 
Costanza’s cousin lived, and there she said 
That they would stay the night, so that 
they two 

Could meet me on the morrow, and we all 
Could journey home together. So we 
planned, 

Walking together to the valley’s mouth, 
Civetta on my shoulder. And I asked 
If I should buy a kerchief for my dear, 

But she said no — that I should buy instead 
Some trinket for the child. That was her 
way. 

And then, because it wrung my heart to go, 
I lifted up my eyes unto the hills, 

And saw the forest-bearded face of Piz 
Bending as if it blessed us — and I said 
May God and Piz watch over you! And 
so . . . 

And so I left them at the valley’s mouth. 
She took the faded kerchief from her head. 
Waving it as I went — and I could see 
The sunlight on her hair. When I no more 


[ 107 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

Could see her face, her hair was shining 
still. 


A ND the next day I bought the oxen there 
1 In the Belluno market — comely beasts 
With gentle eyes, and on their horns I bound 
Garlands of poppies. She will clap her 
hands, 

I thought, and kiss them ’twixt the gentle 
eyes, 

And hold Civetta up to fondle them. 

And since she had forbidden me to buy 
A kerchief for her head, I bought instead 
A silver pin to wear on holy-days. 

So light of heart I was that all the way 
I laughed and sang aloud — and all the way 
I lifted up my eyes unto the hills 
That made me glad. But when at last I came 
In sight of home ... I could not see my 
home, 

For Piz was gone, and that which had been 
Piz 

[ 108 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

Crammed all the valley’s entrance, and below 
Three villages were buried. They were 
there. 

A neighbor told me all there was to tell — 
Little enough. A sudden rending crash 
And — all was done. I stood and could not 
speak. 

The knowledge fell upon me as the hill 
Fell upon them. He wept who told it me. 

I did not weep. I laughed, remembering 
How I commended them to God and Piz, 
And thus it was They had kept faith with me. 
And then he bade me take my goods and go 
Up to a higher village, for the fall 
Had dammed Cordevole, and stealthily 
The creeping waters rose, and rose, and 
rose — 

But then I laughed again. What use to me 
Were house or goods? I gave my goods 
to him, 

The pair of oxen and the silver pin. 

He had a wife, a kindly soul who nursed 
Costanza in her travail. So I turned 

[ 109 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

Nor looked again upon my empty house, 
Turned and went back the way that I had 
come — 

But as I went I did not lift my face. 

I hoped some mountain kindlier than the rest 
Would fall upon me too — but none would 
fall; 

And all the grass was full of little flowers. 

So I went down to Venice — to the sea — 
No mountains there. 

Signora, pardon me! 
I had not thought my tale would make you 
weep! 

You are too kind. All this was long ago. 

In sixty years there’s time for tears to dry. 
And yet it leaves a scar. Look, even now 
There’s only bareness — yonder. Older still, 
The naked wilderness that seams Peron; 
Not all the summers of five centuries 
Have made that green again. 

I used to think 

That when I came to die, and stood at last 
Right face to face with God, I would not wait 


[ no ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

For Him to judge me — ’twas for me to 
judge. 

I would speak out: “ Why did You do this 
thing? 

“ I trusted You. Why did You do this thing, 
“You and the mountains — if indeed the 
strength 

“ Of them is Yours? ” But since I did not 
die, 

I said, “ I will have naught of them hence¬ 
forth, 

“ God and the mountains. They have 
stricken me 

“ Unjustly, cowardly. I trusted them, 

“ And then they struck a woman and a child 
“ Suddenly in the darkness. Cowardly! ” 

So for ten years I never went to mass 
Nor looked upon the hills — but I would 
stand 

Often before the crucifix, and think — 

O Brother Signor Jesu! You have known 
How He betrays a trust! You trusted too, 
And He forsook You in your agony! 

[ in ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

I was so young, signora! I had known 
Only our people, simple, kindly, good, 

But in the city I saw other things, 

Greed, hatred and uncleanness; and I saw 
The sea. Signora, do you know the sea? 

As year by year I saw the ships come in 
Some prosperous and gay with little flags, 
And some all battered, scarce escaped alive, 
And watched the women wait for other 
ships 

That never came, I thought: Here is a thing 
Cruel as God and treacherous as the hills, 
That favors or destroys, just for a whim. 
Until one day, musing as I was wont 
Before the crucifix, it came to me: 

Perhaps Costanza, as the mountain fell, 

Cried out for me — and I was far away. 
Had I been near, I might have died with her, 
But saved her — no. It may be as she died 
She too cried out, “ Thou hast forsaken me! ” 
Was God as powerless as I? Did He 
Suffer like me? 

I took that afternoon 
[ 112 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

No passengers. I rowed out all alone 
And moored my boat, and went where I 
could look 

Straight out to sea, and all night long I lay 
Upon the sands, and tried to think it clear. 
And when the morning broke, I saw the sea 
Shining before me, and I did not fear 
Nor hate it, for at last I understood 
There was in it no malice and no love. 
Indifferent, it fulfilled its destiny, 

And if its tempests rent the waves alone 
Or beat a ship to driftwood, it nor knew 
Nor cared. If men must needs go forth on 
it, 

Theirs be the peril, theirs the profit too. 

The lives of men are nothing to the sea; 

The lives of men are nothing to the hills. 
Their strength is not of God, but all their 
own. 

It seemed to me the mystery of life 
Lay little in my hand, I was so sure. 

Ten years it was since I had said a prayer, 
But there beside the sea, in the gray dawn — 

[ 113 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

(’Twas a wet dawn, and cold) I stood and 
prayed. 

“Lord God,” I said, “forgive me for my 
hate. 

“You who have suffered, You can under¬ 
stand 

“ And know the cry of pain. You saw Your 
Son 

“ Slain by a thing pitiless as the sea, 

“ Blind as the hills — and You could give no 
help. 

“ Lord God, for my own grief I had no tears, 

“ But for Your grief — and mine — and all 
the world’s. . . ” 

QO I left Venice and went back again. 

^ There in Belluno all men looked on me 
Kindly, a little hushed, as if afraid. 

They thought I had been mad. As I went 
back 

I neither spoke nor sang, but walked erect, 
Head up, and looked the mountains in the 
face. 


[ 114 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

I could not hate them any more, you see. 
They knew not what they did. I understood 
How Cristo could forgive upon the cross. 

It seemed to me I walked, my hand in God’s, 
And sometimes as we went, I thought He 
wept, 

And that I whispered, “ Lord, be comforted. 
“ Such things must be.” 

And so I came again 
Into the valley. All was — as you see. 

Again the grass was full of little flowers 
For it was Spring. The water was not clear 
But green and turbid from the melting 
snows 

And I saw nothing. I was glad of that. 

One learns to bear a little at a time. 

The folk had taken up their life again, 

As one must do, and all about the lake 
I saw again the vineyards and tilled fields 
And heard the saw-mills drone. My neighbor 
came 

And made me free of all his goods. He said 
My yoke of oxen so had prospered him 


[ ns ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

That he could halve his farm with me. His 
wife 

Was with him, and I saw the silver pin 
Set in her hair. She marked my eyes on it 
And made to take it out; down her kind face 
The tears were running; but I stayed her 
hand. 

It did not give me pain to see it there. 

I made my home with them, but would not 
take 

Aught of his land. What did I want of land? 
I had forgotten how to hold a plow. 

I built myself a boat, and back and forth 
I rowed upon the lake, ferrying folk 
And burdens, as they came and called to me. 
And slowly, day by day, the water cleared. 
First I could see the tree-tops, then the tops 
Of chimneys, and at last I saw — the house. 

I thought the rose-bush still was by the door, 
Turned to a water-weed. Only two marks! 

It may be there are roses where she is. 

And in the winter, when I could not row, 

I joined the timberers on the mountain-side. 

[ n6 ] 






LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

They marvelled at me, for I had no fear. 
What should I fear? And often in the snow 
Men came to deadly hurt. Then those who 
wept 

Would turn to me, knowing I understood. 
Then would I say to them, “ Be comforted — 
“ This thing must be ” — as I had said to God. 
But though I prayed, I would not go to mass. 
It seemed to me the priest too cruelly 
Mocked God, in calling Him omnipotent, 
Master of all the world — who could not save 
His Son, nor aught that any man held dear! 

TITY neighbor’s youngest child I loved the 
best. 

Her eyes were like Civetta’s, and she sang 
Always about her play, and, as she grew, 
About her work. There was a lad she 
loved; 

An honest lad — we timbered on the hills 
Together in the winter, and one learns 
To read a man in that white loneliness — 

[ 117 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

And on a day a dead bough sharp with ice 
Fell on his head. A little while it seemed 
That he was mad, and then he fell asleep 
And breathed, but did not waken. Through 
the snow 

I bore him to the village in my arms, 

And when I saw my darling at the door 
I strove to say to her, “ Be comforted, 

“ This thing must be ” — but I could only 
say, 

“ My child! my child!” 

At last there came a night 
It seemed that he must die. Her hand in 
mine 

We sat beside him, and the clock ticked 
loud 

Upon the wall. The minutes seemed to trip 
Upon each other’s heels, so fast they ran. 

I cannot tell you how it came to me, 

But all at once I spoke. 

“ This is not all — 
“ The grief and dumb endurance; there is 
more. 


[ ii8 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

“ There is a hidden meaning in it all, 

“ And what for us is loneliness and tears 
“ Shall blossom in the hearts of the unborn 

“ To beauty, for we suffer not in vain 

“ Although we shall not see the end, not 
now 

“ Nor ever, with these eyes. Since God is 
Love, 

“ Although His ways be strange, they all 
lead home. 

“ The patient wrestling of our shaken 
hearts, 

“ The pitiless sea,the cruel strength of these, 

“ The hills, are His. His will for earth be 
done.” 

And she beside me, slipping to her knees. 

Laid her hot forehead on my hands, and 
said, 

“ His will for earth be done! ” When all at 
once 

He moved, and she crept near, and raised 
herself, 

And looked into his face, and I could see 


[ «9 ] 







LITTLE HOUSES 


AFTERGLOW (continued) 

His opening eyes, and hear a whisper, faint 
As falling embers, but in his own voice — 

“ Costanza! ” 

’Twas her name. 

So I went out 

Under the stars and left those two alone. 

QEE, ’tis their chimney smoking; and that 
^ house, 

With all the roses and the little ones 
About the door, is his — their eldest boy’s — 
The boy they named for me. So many homes 
I can call mine! 

Here is the shore at last — 
Just one more stroke. 

I have not wearied you? 
















































































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